Amending the Constitution

<p>Today we talk about the myriad procedures involved in getting the Epstein Files Transparency Act passed in record time. How do discharge petitions work? What did HR 581 <i>do</i> exactly? How did it get through the Senate so quickly? And while we're at it,  why did it take a r ... Show More

<p><a href="https://kenburns.com/principals/ken-burns/">Ken Burns</a> and <a href="https://kenburns.com/staff/sarah-botstein/">Sarah Botstein</a> spent nearly a decade making a twelve-hour documentary on the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/show/the-american-revolution/?gad_source=1& ... Show More

<p>In sixty years, we have gone from 2 billionaires in the United States to just under 2,000. How on earth did that happen?</p><p>Today, Timothy Noah from the New Republic takes us all the way from our framers fearing excessive wealth to the country's first (potential) trillionai ... Show More

David talks to historian Linda Colley about her new global history of written constitutions: the paper documents that made and remade the modern world. From Corsica to Pitcairn, from Mexico to Japan, it's an amazing story of war and peace, violence, imagination and fear. Recorded ... Show More

<p>More than we need rules, argues Michael Munger, we need rules about the rules. So does the United States need a new Constitution? Listen as the Duke University economist and political scientist talks to host Russ Roberts about public choice, consenting to coercion, and whether ... Show More

Something like 60% of Americans have never fully read the US Constitution. How did such a short document become one of the most important pieces of writing in human history -- and why are some parts of it arguably ridiculous? Ben, Noel and Max welcome returning guest AJ Jacobs, a ... Show More

In Bolivia, a political activist radically reforms the voting process for... student council elections. Who else does he convince? Revisionist History. And maybe a fancy private school in New Jersey. Get Revisionist History updates first by signing up for our newsletter at pushki ... Show More

May 26, 1965. One hundred years after the Civil War, Congress is debating a bill whose goal is to enforce the 15th amendment, which, in 1870, promised the right to vote regardless of race. But that’s not what happened. Now the Civil Rights movement is saying: It’s time to make re ... Show More

Most of us take it for granted that if we're ever in court and we can't afford a lawyer, the court will provide one for us. And in fact, the right to an attorney is written into the Constitution's sixth amendment. But for most of U.S. history, it was more of a nice-to-have — some ... Show More

In the first episode of our new series on the Ideas Behind American Elections, David and historian Gary Gerstle explore the presidential contest of 1800: scurrilous, complicated, game changing. How did it help create the American party system? Was it really democratic? What would ... Show More

<p>For decades now, the conservative legal movement has been on a mission to remake this nation’s laws from the bench. And it’s working. On Friday we released <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/01/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-kate-shaw.html" target="_blank">an episode with th ... Show More

<p>A.J. Jacobs spent a month following the most conservative interpretation of the Constitution possible. One not far from how the current Supreme Court has been ruling. Host Joel Stein, talks to him about his article for the Guardian, "Party Like It's 1789! My Weird, Enlightenin ... Show More